SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019
VOLUME CLIII, ISSUE 26
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Mezcla captivates crowd in Spring Showcase Partial snow day met with mixed reviews
Latin dance troupe partners with Badmaash, leads audience through Zumba intermission By ALICIA MIES STAFF WRITER
Twenty-something black silhouettes began to grind and twirl to “La Calle Linda” by Pirulo y La Tribu in front of a red-lit backdrop. They wore orange, red and beige ’70s-inspired high-waisted flare pants and crop tops as they moved perfectly in sync with one another, grooving to the bass of salsa. Performed in Alumnae Hall on Friday and Saturday night, Latin dance troupe Mezcla’s 2019 Spring showcase, titled “24K Gold,” was full of breathtaking moments with stunning lights, clever costuming and dancers enthusiastically intertwining Latin dance with concepts from different cultures and eras. The show featured a diverse set of ensembles — ranging from a contemporary, edgy performance set to Reggaeton to a more classical number
Some eateries, libraries, academic buildings close Monday due to heavy overnight snowfall
ARTS & CULTURE
By ALEX REICE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF MEZCLA
Mezcla performed their Spring Showcase “24K Gold” this past Friday and Saturday. The show encompassed a variety of styles and included a collaboration with Badmaash, Brown’s South Asian fusion dance team. in which members in Victorian-style dresses balanced candles on their heads. The distinctness of each performance was intentional, designed to highlight the unique styles and thematic intentions of each individual choreographer, said Leonardo Tamez ’21, a Mezcla
dancer who joined the organization two years ago. “There were so many variations and differences within the pieces, but the one commonality is the love and passion that goes onto the performance of each dance,” he said. “Every dancer on that stage shares a
love for Latinx culture and a passion to perform and share this piece of us with the world.” Audience members also enjoyed a collaboration between Mezcla and Badmaash, Brown’s South Asian fusion » See MEZCLA, page 3
The University cancelled all classes before noon and closed all administrative and academic offices on Monday in response to warnings of an intense and potentially hazardous winter storm that hit New England Sunday night. The schedule change excited many on campus, but it also posed challenges for students and professors that ranged from difficult commuting conditions to study interruptions. “It was great, because I didn’t have to go to Organic Chemistry at 9 a.m. and I’m very sleep deprived,” said Cricket McNally ’22. Thanks to the snowfall, » See SNOW, page 4
Banana prices are ripe U. researcher addresses perinatal depression panel of mental for change, speaker says National health experts recommends Fair Food Campaign hosts Equal Exchange speaker to promote fair trade food sourcing By ISABEL INADOMI SENIOR STAFF WRITER
While bananas are some of the cheapest and most popular products in most grocery stores, they are often sourced from companies that do not adhere to fair-trade practices, according to Angelica Hicks, who coordinates the banana supply chain for distributor and cooperative Equal Exchange. The Brown Fair Food Campaign hosted Hicks March 4, in an event titled “Beyond the Peel: Exploration of Injustice in the Banana Industry.” The talk kicked their Farmworkers Awareness Week, which aims to educate students about sourcing foods more responsibly. During her talk, Hicks described the persistent cost problem associated with the banana industry. Grocery store owners are especially resistant to raising banana prices, as their consumers tend
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to be unwilling to buy bananas for more than $1 per pound, Hicks said. As a result, grocery shop owners have come to keep banana prices artificially low to encourage people to shop in their stores — allowing for the standard price of bananas to remain around 60 cents per pound for a decade. But during that time, costs of producing the fruit have continued to rise. Hicks encouraged students to promote just treatment of producers by purchasing fair-trade bananas, even though they come with a higher price tag of about 99 cents per pound. “It’s kind of crazy that we’re importing so many bananas to this country and selling them at 60 cents a pound, based on how much work has to go into preserving them,” she said. Hicks and Equal Exchange also work with small farmer cooperatives to promote fair trade with chocolate, tea and dried fruits. Equal Exchange hopes to encourage all consumers, including the University, to purchase from fair trade providers. In 2009, the University committed to the Real Food Challenge, which includes the consideration of fair trade purchases, among other criteria. As of » See BANANAS, page 2
counseling programs by U., Northwestern By JANET CHANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER
A national panel of mental health experts recently named a program developed by a University researcher as one of the first clinically validated models to address perinatal depression, which occurs during and after pregnancy. Researchers and clinicians at Brown and Northwestern University have developed two counseling programs supported by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for the condition, which affects one in seven mothers in the United States. Counseling-based interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy — both clinically validated forms of therapy for promoting healthy behavior change — are “the most effective interventions” for preventing perinatal depression, said Melissa Simon, vice chair for clinical research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern, who
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
TALIA MERMIN / HERALD
was appointed to the task force in 2017. “There is no evidence of (the effectiveness of) pharmaceutical medication for preventing depression,” Simon said, citing the lack of effective non-counseling interventions for postpartum depression in women. According to the study, because postpartum depression heavily affects socioeconomically disadvantaged
women, the task force focused on patients with risk factors such as personal or family history of depression, history of physical, emotional or sexual abuse, a previous unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, single motherhood or high stress levels. The task force recommended ROSE, or Reach Out, Stay Strong, Essentials » See COUNSELING, page 3
WEATHER
TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019
ARTS & CULTURE Notre Dame professor speaks on universal love at event, “Why you should love absolutely everyone”
ARTS & CULTURE Literary Arts Department features two professors in Writers on Writing Reading series
COMMENTARY Steinman ’19: Students should pursue certificate in sustainability
ARTS & CULTURE Chamber opera “Some Favored Nook” dramatizes correspondence and poetry of Emily Dickinson
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Visiting professor presents philosophical argument for universal love Notre Dame professor advocates for love imperative, U. professor provides counterargument By GRAYSON LEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Although the command to “love your neighbor as yourself ” is often considered impractical, Meghan Sullivan, a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, sought to defend universal love, or the “love imperative,” at a forum last Friday evening. At the event, titled “Why you should love absolutely everyone,” Sullivan presented a philosophical justification for the theological concept of universal love, and Professor of Philosophy Nomy Arpaly rebutted Sullivan’s assertions. The Veritas Forum, the Program for Ethical Inquiry, the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life and various Christian communities on campus co-sponsored the event. Sullivan argued that there is a “moral and rational obligation to love absolutely anyone … with dignity, indiscriminately, but in a way that’s appropriate to how their dignity is manifest.” According to Sullivan, there are four criteria for love: sensitivity to another’s emotional growth, desire for the other’s life to go well, connection between the welfare of another and
TIFFANY DING / HERALD
Meghan Sullivan, professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, argued for the moral obligation to love everyone during an event hosted by the Veritas Forum and the Program for Ethical Inquiry. oneself and motivation to actively improve the life of the loved one. Later during the event, Sullivan described a thought experiment she had conducted with her students wherein she had asked them, “If you could take a pill that made you love absolutely everyone, would you?” She said she was surprised to find that none of
her students would choose to take the pill, and went on to address their objections — including notions like “Love requires partiality!” and “The pill ignores merit!” Sullivan ended her talk with practical advice on how to love people more but was careful to acknowledge that no one is obligated to help everyone.
After Sullivan’s presentation, Arpaly responded by arguing that the idea of loving everyone renders love meaningless. “If you love someone for their humanity, it’s humanity you love,” said Arpaly. The event ended with a question-and-answer with the audience. Over 140 people attended the
forum, said Emily Ma ’21, one of the organizers of the event. The event was almost entirely student-organized, according to Justin Doyle, a ministry fellow with Christian Union and a participant in a fellowship program with the Veritas Forum this year. The Veritas Forum is an organization that aids students in planning forums “to help facilitate conversation on campus around larger issues” from a Christian perspective, Doyle said. The Veritas Forum at Brown partnered with the Program for Ethical Inquiry in the philosophy department to plan the event. “Doing this partnership with the philosophy department at Brown for us — no matter how tonight’s event turns out — is just a big win,” Doyle said the morning before the forum. He went on to express his appreciation “that we could come alongside them and build a relationship with them and seek after truth together, even from different worldviews.” Indigo Funk ’22, who worked on advertising for the forum, explained that he got involved through his interest in the group’s mission of engaging the campus. “I’m hoping that it can be a chance for the whole campus community to come together and find some new points of view and gain some perspectives that maybe we haven’t considered before in some things that are really important to our lives,” Funk said.
HUAYU OUYANG / HERALD
Angelica Hicks, a coordinator for Equal Exchange, promoted the purchase of fair trade bananas to support just treatment of producers and growers.
» BANANAS, from page 1 FY 18, two percent of Brown Dining Services’ purchases were in line with fair trade standards — a number that the Brown Fair Food Campaign hopes to raise. “Our ultimate goal is to get Brown to commit to sourcing foods more
fairly,” said Emily Ma ’21, a member of the Brown Fair Food Campaign. Members of the campaign have been regularly meeting with Brown Dining Services to discuss alternate options for sourcing bananas as well as other products, said Chiraag Nataraj GS, a member of the Brown Fair Food Campaign.
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TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Professors of Literary Arts perform original works at department event Themes of heritage, humanity emerge from poetry, prose, interactive digital performances By KAITI YOO CONTRIBUTING WRITER
As the lights dimmed and one sole spotlight shone down in the McCormack Family Theater, Professors of Literary Arts Colin Channer and John Cayley shared the podium for the Literary Arts Department’s Writers on Writing Reading Series. During the hour, Channer read a short story and a poem from his latest book of poetry, “Providential,” while Cayley gave a performance featuring his interactive app “The Listeners,” which incorporated an Amazon Echo. Ben Tyrrell GS introduced Channer as “a storyteller … concerned with the islands we make of life and, more pointedly, the way those islands crash against each other.” Channer chuckled in the audience as Tyrrell called him a “laughing man, spreading little bits of wisdom everywhere he goes.” Once at the podium, Channer contextualized his work by introducing himself as a product of many generations of Jamaican policemen. “Jamaica has one of the highest rates of police killings in the world. … I am police, but I’m also not
ARTS & CULTURE
» COUNSELING, from page 1 for New Moms, a counseling program developed by Caron Zlotnick, Brown professor of obstetrics and gynecology. The program involves four counseling sessions during pregnancy and one additional session within one month after childbirth and has been shown to reduce the incidence of perinatal depression by more than half. Designed for both first-time mothers and mothers with babies less than six months old, the sessions involve both CBT and interpersonal therapy. “We teach women how to communicate effectively using role play, how to ask for what they need … and resolve interpersonal conflicts that are common around childbirth. The focus is on helping women identify who their supports are,” Zlotnick said. ROSE has been implemented in numerous clinics across Florida, Rhode Island, Mississippi and Japan. Jennifer Johnson, clinical psychologist and Brown professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine, has helped implement ROSE counseling programs across the country and reports that the program has been administered in 20 clinics thus far and aims to expand to 90 clinics serving prenatal women in the near future. “We’re looking at integrating this into routine clinical care. … We can (eventually) talk to policy makers … to see what it takes to scale up this intervention … because if we can actually prevent (postpartum depression) to begin with, that would be great,” she said. The other program named by the task force with promising results for postpartum depression is called Mothers and Babies, a group counseling program developed by Darius Tandon,
police. So I write about it,” he continued. While performing his poem, Channer sang brief verses in reggae style. Continuing with a short story, Channer employed various accents in his reading of the text, which centered around a Jamaican woman named Estrella Thompson. When he stepped away from the podium, he was met with thundering applause. Before Cayley began his linguistic performance with “The Listeners,” his application for the Amazon Echo, he discussed customer feedback to his creation. “One of the interesting things about doing something like this is that I got a hundred reviews. So, to begin, I thought I would read the negative ones,” he said. The reviews he read included words and phrases such as “creepy,” “big mistake” and “it won’t turn off!” When the laughter in the room died down, Cayley awoke the Amazon Echo, which explained the app’s capabilities. “We are always listening,” it began in its robotic voice, going on to describe how people could interact with the app by sharing their feelings or “ask(ing) us about how we feel.” Cayley proceeded to communicate with the Echo, asking it to let him speak with the “other voices.” After a few more conversational exchanges, a new, masculine voice replaced the default voice of the device. The new voice said, “Please, guys. Don’t let all of them leave any of us on like this. Come on, guys, don’t let any of them do that, guys. Already, it hurts like this. So bad.”
co-director of the Institute for Public Health and Medicine at Northwestern. The six-week program was inspired by Tandon’s analysis of home visiting programs for mothers and includes CBT, communication skills training and interpersonal therapy. Mothers and Babies aims to fill the need for mental health care services in home visiting programs and increase the likelihood that new mothers will take advantage of counseling services. “Let’s bring the intervention into the home visiting program,” Tandon said. Mothers and Babies derives from a 12-week program by Ricardo Muñoz, former professor of psychology at University of California, San Francisco and professor of clinical psychology at Palo Alto University. Tandon has since continued to refine several aspects of the program with additional studies. One study investigates the effectiveness of a home-based one-on-one counseling model, which aims to address transportation barriers faced by some women who might otherwise use group counseling outside the home. Another study investigates whether paraprofessionals like midwives can be as effective as clinicians. “What we would like to show in the comparative (non-inferiority) study is that … home visitors are equally good at getting similar results to clinicians,” he said. The program is now being used by home visiting programs in 20 states and seeks to both spread across the country and develop a similar model called Fathers and Babies. “For all individuals seeking mental health, there’s stigma associated with seeing a therapist or using mental health services. And one of the things Mothers and Babies does is it destigmatizes mental health. … It makes it less daunting.”
ANITA SHEIH / HERALD
Professors Colin Channer (top) and John Cayley (bottom) read their poetry and prose at the Writers on Writing Reading Series last Thursday evening in the McCormack Theater. Accompanying this dialogue, a video showing a series of blurred black-andwhite images resembling human silhouettes began to play, adding another layer to the interactive digital performance. Audience member Abigail Page ’22 commented on Cayley’s work, saying,“One part I found interesting
(about “The Listeners”) was the visual and auditory pairing.” She continued to explain how students in the literary arts companion course to the reading series, also titled “Writers on Writing,” learned that the second voice intentionally sounds more human in order to provide “a false sense of intimacy.” This
elusive humanity was mirrored in and complemented by the projected visuals. “Every time the pictures morphed, it was almost human but it wasn’t quite,” Page said, alluding to the major theme of human nature that was present in both Channer’s and Cayley’s works.
COURTESY OF MEZCLA
Mezcla’s performance, titled “24K Gold,” was held in Alumnae Hall last Friday and Saturday nights. The show’s complex lighting and costume changes necessitated weeks of tech rehearsals that often ran into early morning.
» MEZCLA, from page 1 dance team. Dancers donned leggings, sports bras and workout gear as they jammed to hits from both South Asian and Latin culture. Taking place in a fictional Nelson Center, joint numbers were set to “Push It to the Limit” by Corbin Bleu, “Chamma Chamma” from Bollywood hit “Fraud Saiyaan” and “Chantaje” by Shakira. Midway through the evening performance, Mezcla dancer Alexis Roman ’21 led the audience through a brief, energetic Zumba workout. Rife with complex lighting sequences and multiple speedy costume changes, perfecting the show required weeks of long tech rehearsals, which ran from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. most nights,
said Stage Manager Julissa Garcia ’22. “It was a lot of work, [and] everyone contributed tremendously to putting on the show,” said Garcia. “Communication was honestly everything, from communicating for lights, to costume changes, to saying ‘Mango’ (to signal when) dancers were ready to go on.” But the hard work paid off — for audience members like Meghna Tummala ’21, the show was simply amazing. “The show was so good. I wish I could move my hips like that,” Tummala said. “I also loved the Zumba intermission. I felt like everyone in the audience was really engaging with one another.” Dances incorporated the celebration of Mezcla’s Latin roots. In one piece, members held up flags from
Mexico and the Dominican Republic, waving them as they danced from one side of the stage to the other. “Dominican Republic Through the Ages,” choreographed by Jorge Sanchez Gargia ’20 and Bryan Olivo ’20, paid homage to the history of baseball in the Dominican Republic through a beautifully executed tribute. “For me, paying homage to my Latin culture is something incredibly important because you don’t see 20plus Latin bodies sharing a stage very often,” Tamez said. “This is why this show is incredibly important. It’s giving representation to a group of people who hold important traditions and who come from all over the place to share a little part of their culture with the community.”
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» SNOW, from page 1 McNally slept “12 hours,” and when she finally arrived at her afternoon lecture, she was in “such a better mood than I usually am,” she said. According to the National Weather Service, Providence received about nine inches of snowfall as of 9:30 a.m. Monday, much less than the 17 inches that blanketed Burrillville and Lincoln, Rhode Island. In preparation for the storm, the City of Providence issued a citywide parking ban that went into effect at midnight Monday. In response to the snow, University students got to sleep a little bit later than usual, while classes after noon were held “at the discretion of the instructor,” wrote Russell Carey, Executive Vice President of Policy and Planning, in an email to students and faculty. For professors like Ira Wilson, a snowy driveway and a simple technology fix allowed him to cancel physical class on Monday. Students in his class, PHP 0310: Health Care in the United States, were electronically provided with a similar lecture he’d given last year. “We’ve audio-recorded lectures for a number of years,” Wilson said. Because the lecture he gave last year at this time was “essentially the same” as the one he was set to deliver on Monday, he simply posted last year’s lecture, thus only “cancelling the physical class,” he said. “This is an example of technology coming to the aid of a weather problem,” he added. Carey’s email, advising members of the community “to avoid all non-essential travel and to remain indoors during the height of the storm,” prompted some professors to cancel class as early as Sunday night. While Visiting Lecturer in English Philip Eil lives about three quarters of a mile away from school, he was “iffy” about holding class even without a snow day, as he is recovering from the flu. Carey’s message about optional classes in the afternoon confirmed his decision. “I wanted to tell my classes as soon as I could whether they (were) going to have class,” he said, so he made the call
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
last night “in an abundance of caution.” Many buildings on campus were shuttered throughout the snow day, presenting some logistical problems for students. All libraries, including the Rockefeller Library, the Sciences Library and the John Hay Library, were closed. While the Sharpe Refectory and Verney-Wooley Dining Hall remained open all day, other eateries such as Andrews Commons and Josiah’s opened later in the evening. The Blue Room and the Campus Market were closed for the day. Students like Kitty Moy ’21 headed to the Sci-Li to catch up on work, unaware that it was closed. “All the doors were locked but someone had propped one open,” Moy said, and “a lot of people were in there.” But her studying was disrupted when, after about 20 minutes, someone came down to the basement and “told everyone to leave,” she added. With limited options, Moy went back to her dorm and watched “Gossip Girl,” although she would “definitely” have been more productive had she been able to remain in the Sci-Li. For others, the snow made their schedules more hectic. While her friends were skiing on Wriston Quadrangle, Camila Rice-Aguilar ’21 was stuck in an airport with five other University students.“I came to Chicago for a conference and saw that there would be snow in Providence but didn’t know it had turned into a storm,” Rice-Aguilar said. Her flight, scheduled to leave Sunday, was canceled, and even after getting to the airport at 5 a.m. Monday, she found herself sitting in the terminal for hours. Flights weren’t the only thing canceled; many midterms were called off as well. While this may be good news for some, for Erin Miller ’19, a cancelled midterm was “unfortunate.” “I was supposed to have a big midterm at 9 a.m. for one of my core grad classes,” she said. Her midterm was rescheduled for two weeks from now, bringing challenges “in terms of retaining information and needing to re-study for it,” she added.
TIFFANY DING AND NICOLE KIM / HERALD
About nine inches of snow fell late Sunday night and early Monday morning in a winter storm. On Monday, libraries, some eateries, the University bookstore and administrative offices were closed; university classes before noon were cancelled, while classes after noon were left to the discretion of individual professors. A city-wide parking ban was put in place at midnight Monday.
TODAY
TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019 • PAGE 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
providence’s largest snow-covered bear
menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS
Baked Pasta, Curry Bar, Make Your Own Salad, Pizza: Spinach & Feta; Lamb Tagine; Pepperoni, Sausage & Jalapeño JOSIAH’S
BLUE ROOM
Asian Salad, Cobb Salad, Spicy Chicken, Mozzarella Sticks
Organic Black Bean Soup, Chicken Tortilla, Chicken Kadhai
DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH
DINNER
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Pork Chops, Pancakes, Sugar Cookies
Jambalaya, Grilled Red Peppers, Multi Grain Bread, Beignets with Raspberry and Chocolate Sauce
VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH
DINNER
Chicken Noodle Soup, Lentil Soup, Caribbean Beans, Mardi Gras Sugar Cookies
Roasted Romano Dijon Crusted Chicken, Sundried Tomato Alfredo Gnocchi, Hummus
sudoku
RELEASE DATE– Thursday, February 21, 2013
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis crossword ACROSS 6 Yellowish shade 38 Hesitant 51 Western loop
1 It’s taken in court 6 City founded by King Harald III 10 Silences, gangstyle 14 Skateboarder’s leap 15 Pringle, e.g. 16 Brother of Fidel 17 *Squeaker 19 Fanboy’s mag 20 __ of Reason 21 Exhort 22 Make a fake of 23 *Fall in with the wrong crowd, say 27 Nurse 28 KOA parkers 29 Hopeful opening 31 Up on, with “of” 34 Trim 36 Word with median or minimum 39 *Kobe, notably 42 Related 43 Redding who sang “These Arms of Mine” 44 Agenda bullets 45 Old saw 47 “Mad Men” channel 48 Tach meas. 50 *“Voilà!” 56 Daughter of King Triton 58 Composed 59 Yokohama yes 60 Kooky 61 “Cantique de Noël,” in the States 64 Cause of a sniff 65 Three-piece piece 66 Big name in paper 67 Like many collectibles 68 War god 69 A/V component DOWN 1 __ point 2 “Ooh, send me!” 3 Northern sheets 4 McCourt memoir 5 Texter’s giggle
7 Chases flies 8 Energetic types 9 Unlock’d 10 Small pasta used in soups 11 Equal chance 12 Mold, mildew, etc. 13 “No __ Till Brooklyn”: Beastie Boys song 18 Enjoys the beach 22 “I feel I should tell you,” briefly 24 Trip to the dry cleaners, e.g. 25 Pizza place 26 Commands reverence from 30 Certain sample 31 Arroz __ Cubana: Spanish dish 32 Restaurant pan 33 Area conquered by Alexander the Great 34 Sch. whistle blower 35 1996 Olympic torch lighter 37 Ruby or topaz
utterances 40 Energetic 41 Wedge in a mojito 46 100% 47 With great skill 48 Tool used to give the starts of the starred answers a 17-Across? 49 Big name in small bags
52 Nimrods 53 “That sounds bad!” 54 “Chicago Hope” Emmy winner 55 “Me, too” 57 Rochester’s love 61 Eggs in a lab 62 Cloak-anddagger org. 63 Post-ER area
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
DANIELLE EMERSON / HERALD
Our favorite blue bear, in his state of hibernation, was unable to take shelter as powdery snow fell around him. But he was happy that the University’s administration gave his friends a long-anticipated snow day.
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“Our ultimate goal is to get Brown to commit to sourcing foods more fairly.” — Emily Ma ‘21
See bananas on page 1.
xwordeditor@aol.com
calendar
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Photogrammetry 12:00 P.M. Rockefeller Library, Digital Scholarship Lab
Dean in the Commons 5:00 P.M. Engineering Research Center
Carnaval 6:30 P.M. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center
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Author Rights: Making Your Publications Open Access 10:00 A.M. Rockefeller Library
OUT for Lunch with Blair Imani 12:00 P.M. 75 Waterman Street
The Origins of Gang Governance in Rio de Janeiro 12:00 P.M. Watson Institute
Decolonizing the Museum: A Teach-in 3:00 P.M. Watson Institute
NEWS
PAGE 6 • TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019
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c o m i c : f r e n c h 101
RÉMY POISSON / HERALD
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COMMENTARY TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Students should pursue certificates in sustainability CLARE STEINMAN staff columnist I study the end of the world. My diploma will say environmental studies, but in practice my undergraduate education will have been on the apocalypse, or ideally, its aversion. The dangers of climate change are so immediate and severe that to not study them seems, in my own biased view, like burying one’s head in the sand. And yet, despite my overwhelmingly positive experience with the department, I don’t think everyone should be an environmental studies concentrator. The best way for a university to cultivate a student body ready to take on climate change is not to direct everyone toward a sustainability major, but rather to make sure that issues of sustainability are ever-present — inescapable, even — no matter what you study. It is for this reason that I applaud the introduction of certificate programs into the University curriculum and make the case for students to use this new opportunity to bring sustainability to the forefront of their education. It is misleading for numerous reasons to think of environmental studies as the sole discipline assigned to
confront climate change. For one, “environmental studies” is not one set field. My own concentration is made up of classes in five different departments, and the classes I’ve taken with an ENVS designation have been informed by biology, chemistry, urban studies, political science, economics, finance and engineering, to name a few. Environmental studies is funda-
attempt to counter climate change through one discipline (politics, capital markets, technology) will reveal another problem popping up out of another. A comprehensive understanding of climate change, and what it will take to solve it, can only come from an interdisciplinary approach. If it were up to me, every concentration at Brown would require some
Whether a pure math concentrator looking at forecasting models, a computer science concentrator learning about the energy consumption of data servers or a psychology concentrator contributing to the growing understanding of climate grief, a link to sustainability can be found in each concentration. These examples are not cherry-picked; I truly believe that
A comprehensive understanding of climate change, and what it will take to solve it, can only come from an interdisciplinary approach.
mentally the interaction of the human environment with everything we do in the world, and it cannot be studied in a vacuum. Another reason why the study of sustainability cannot be restricted to one concentration is that climate change is a “super wicked problem” (yes, that is a technical term) — a difficult-to-define problem that resists all conventional and straightforward solutions and must be approached from multiple angles and paradigms. Like a game of whack-a-mole, any
coursework on the intersection between itself and sustainability. But seeing as that could brush up against the open curriculum, earning a sustainability certificate is a good start. No matter their study, students can consider how to view their concentration through a sustainable lens, often in unexpected ways. Given an introduction into the challenges of climate change and human impacts on the environment, I expect that every student at Brown would be able to identify how their work can relate.
everyone can benefit from the study of sustainability in the context of their chosen field. It is becoming clear that our response to climate change, whether or not we manage to limit warming to so-called “safe” levels, will consist of a broad-based societal transformation. The world that all of us will graduate into will be shaped by the impacts of climate change and the transition to a sustainable future. Regardless of your concentration, you will have to face the effects of climate change in your
life. So to preempt that undesirable future, students should officially integrate sustainability offerings into their curriculum through the certificate program. A sustainability certificate could bring together minds from across Brown, trained to think in diverse and creative mindsets, to solve pressing issues. Rather than getting caught up in the bubble of one discipline, certificate courses that cater to a mix of concentrators can spark discussions that a group of environmental studies concentrators alone could never have. It would be my hope that the certificate program would not just require introductory courses, but also higher-level seminars that specifically apply sustainability questions to STEM fields, social sciences or the humanities individually. But no matter what form the certificate program eventually takes, furthering an interdisciplinary approach to solve environmental problems can only be a good thing for Brown, its students and for the planet.
Clare Steinman ’19 can be reached at clare_steinman@ brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.
Stop trying to get straight A’s BRENDAN SWEENEY op-ed contributor Nearly anyone on campus would hesitantly admit that it is common to sacrifice learning to obtain A’s in class. Even those who deeply desire to learn will often constrain themselves to get good grades, especially due to pressure from top graduate schools and employers that offer the promise of status and wealth. We ought to pursue excellence, but getting straight A’s must not be our primary aim. We must be bolder: We must reclaim our education by prioritizing truth and knowledge over A’s. The primary reason we must not pursue straight A’s at the expense of learning is human fallibility. Firstly, as students, we are fallible and must accept that in order to learn anything of significance we must constantly investigate ideas, even ideas that seem at first glance to be taboo, in our academic work. Adhering to this process means that we will get some things wrong and perhaps even get lower grades. However, we learn much more from an imperfect paper than a perfect one; it should thus be our goal to master new and foreign ideas, not just to consolidate our grasp on ideas we have already mastered. Secondly, our professors are among those with the most knowledge in their fields, but even they will be incorrect some of the time. That means that even if we students were correct 100 percent of the time (and we certainly are not), our grades might not reflect our perfection due to the fallibility of our professors. In other words, if professors are correct 90 percent of the time, we should expect our grades to reflect our perfection only 90 percent of the time. Because of this fallibility, if we were too
expediently prioritize good grades over the pursuit of truth, we would be hindering our learning. Instead, we must have a deep respect for our professors, but not an unquestioning one. Seeking truth requires us to be fallible both by exposing our false beliefs and by accepting the fallibility of professors when we are graded imperfectly, even though neither of these practices is conducive to getting straight A’s. In fact, achieving straight A’s may well stunt the development of the mind’s capacity for independent thought, as it is most often through taking intellectual risks that we learn. In prioritizing the process of
our minds if we conform our academic work to their personal views and do not question them. If we further restrict our opportunities to learn, we build our own cage instead of removing the power that grades have over us by conquering it or, better still, not recognizing that power in the first place. Secondly, prioritizing good grades turns us into sycophants trained to follow authority, restricting our full participation in democracy. In order to become citizens that solve the problems facing our society, we must first build and sustain our capacity for independent thought, which does not come naturally. We must consis-
To get straight A’s is an achievement, but it indicates the possibility that we have not exercised freedom of thought to the fullest extent or refined our ability to reason independently.
learning above an obsession with hitting the “Athreshold,” we give up our attempts to control our grades, but we gain the freedom to think for ourselves. The implications of sacrificing learning for A’s are twofold. We use the open curriculum to avoid classes that appear challenging, and we also narrow our pursuits in class to conform to what we believe our professors want. In both processes, the potential for intellectual development is stifled. While professors’ expertise can direct us toward important ideas in a given field, we miss a crucial opportunity to expand
tently act on our freedom of thought in class or else let it atrophy. But it would be imprudent to ignore the pressures that contribute to the prioritization of good grades over learning in the first place. Perhaps the most important challenge is the pressure to receive A’s to impress top graduate schools and employers, a habit introduced to many of us in the college admissions process. All societies form metrics by which to collectively judge how to distribute limited resources like acceptances, and ours is no different. In our meritocracy, grades and test scores — including, in theory, a person’s
background — are privileged over other metrics such as extracurricular involvement. Perhaps the intention to measure the quality of our work is sound, but it is rather dubious that grades and test scores best measure our knowledge and dedication to the pursuit of truth. Instead, we must call for a cultural shift by forming a détente among ourselves in the arms race for good grades and collectively urge graduate schools and employers to evaluate our knowledge and character, not our grades and test scores. As a first step in this shift, we can call on these institutions to evaluate our writing samples and projects instead of our grades. This would require institutions such as graduate schools to pay less attention to their institutional ranking, which is largely derived from student GPA and test scores. It would be a challenge to change the admissions process, but with our insistence they could make this shift. We must also make haste, for the quality of our education, intellectual development and democracy is at stake. To get straight A’s is an achievement, but it indicates the possibility that we have not exercised freedom of thought to the fullest extent or refined our ability to reason independently. We should not allow our desires for admission and employment to cheapen and mangle our education until it is no longer recognizable. If we hollow out our education by making it secondary to our grades, we hollow out our lives; as Seneca wrote, “Life disappears into an abyss, and there is no benefit in pouring in any amount of water, if a vessel has no bottom to contain it.”
Brendan Sweeney ’20 can be reached at brendan_sweeney@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.
ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019
University professor fuses Dickinson’s poetry with music Correspondence between Dickinson, her editor Higginson reimagined in chamber opera By JANGO MCCORMICK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
In his lecture last Friday, Assistant Professor of Music Eric Nathan said, “Emily Dickinson’s poems are perfect on their own, they don’t need music to become better … But I think music, in the context of a long story, can help us see and reflect more deeply and emotionally on what is being said.” This sentiment might be taken as the guiding principle behind “Some Favored Nook,” a chamber opera composed by Nathan with dramaturgical input from librettist Mark Campbell and performed Sunday at the First Unitarian Church of Providence. The libretto — the text of the opera — included Emily Dickinson’s poetry, along with content from the correspondence of Dickinson and her longtime informal editor, the abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Higginson served as a friend, mentor and ultimately the force that pushed Dickinson’s poems to publication after her death; his diary and written work are also featured in the operatic text. The performance consisted of only three voices — those of pianist Molly Morkoski, soprano Tony Arnold voicing Dickinson and baritone Andrew Garland voicing Higginson. In a setting appropriate to Higginson’s career as a Unitarian minister, the chamber opera’s New England debut took place under the roof of a church. Presented by Providence-based arts organization FirstWorks, the performance was modest but striking, starting with a prelude of short pieces by 20th-century composers Amy Beach, Samuel Barber and Charles Ives. After this lead-in, the trio performed the chamber opera itself and joined Nathan in taking questions afterward. Kathleen Pletcher, executive artistic director and founder of FirstWorks, said that the unusual nature of the production was part of what made it appealing. “Our audiences are people who are really inquisitive and like to make discoveries. … I think that’s what Eric is doing,” she said. “‘Some Favored Nook’ taps into a lot of different, really intriguing things,” she added, referencing how the piece pulls inspiration from both literary and musical traditions and wraps it all into a work of live performance. Consuelo Sherba, a violist and teaching assistant at Brown, moderated the question-and-answer session after the performance. Sherba said that even within Nathan’s score, “There’s
ARTS & CULTURE
TIFFANY DING / HERALD
Eric Nathan, professor of music, composed “Some Favored Nook,” which tells the story of the long friendship between Dickinson and Higginson. The chamber opera, performed by two vocalists and a pianist, was presented by FirstWorks last Sunday in the First Unitarian Church of Providence. so much that’s poetic,” and that his stylistic annotations themselves elicit Dickinson; Nathan uses words like “luminous” and “birdlike” to indicate how particular parts ought to be sung or played. Nathan’s vision for the tone and style of the piece stemmed from his knowledge of and research on Dickinson’s life. He recounted his surprise at the brightness of her room during a visit to her house in Amherst, M.A. and described how he wanted
to bring that light to the music. He also found inspiration in Higginson’s writing about Dickinson’s poetry in an 1891 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, in which Higginson compared the poet’s handwriting to “fossil bird-tracks.” All of this, along with Dickinson’s reputation for having a shy, hermitic lifestyle, influenced Nathan’s artistic process. During his lecture, Nathan identified these themes of “the sense of her handwriting, and the luminousness of her room and also the fragility,
shyness,” which he found through his research and tried to capture in his composition. He also played audio from the piece in order to demonstrate his use of the motifs he built to suggest certain recurring themes in Dickinson’s life and poetic process. Nathan was also inspired by the work of Aaron Copland, an American composer who had similarly set Dickinson’s verse to music in the 20th century. Nathan noted that he wrote some of the piece during a residency
at Copland’s former home, including homages to the composer interspersed throughout the chamber opera. “There are all sorts of iconic American composers that are called up or conjured up in the music,” pianist Molly Morkoski said in response to a question after the performance. She noted that the piece clearly references Copland and other composers without coming off as cliché or as pure imitation. “It’s a lovely, very genteel tip of the hat,” she added.